The French firm has hired six senior staff from Freedom to create a Canadian business. Fimat's Toronto Capital Markets Group will focus on government bonds, swaps, forward rate agreements, repos and futures and options.

The group will trade over-the-counter derivatives and repurchase agreements, and will act as a principal for cash trades between Canadian dealers.

The new hires include Tim Anastakis, who will head the new firm and who has over 17 years of trading and brokerage experience in the Canadian fixed income and derivatives markets. The other Freedom recruits include Jerry Summers, a government bond, fixed income and futures broker; Stacy Hart, a repo broker; and David Whealy and Michael Doane, government bond brokers.

Freedom declined to comment on the departures, which mirror similar hiring raids by brokerage firms in the US, Europe and Asia.